Board Fills Seat, Skips Comments

Retired business executive Robert J. Day had not been a DuPage County Board member for more than 45 minutes Tuesday before there was a spark of controversy.

The appointment of Day, 71, of Hinsdale, a former chairman of USG Corp., to fill a vacancy on the County Board from District 3 won quick and unanimous approval at the start of Tuesday's board meeting. That prompted an angry reaction several minutes later from a DuPage resident who had been waiting for the public comment portion of the meeting to speak against Day's appointment.

Patricia Nied, of unincorporated Downers Grove Township, said she had intended to ask County Board members to vote against the appointment.

That she was allowed to speak only after the appointment was approved was "a dirty trick," she said. "You just excluded us from the process."

Day was nominated by County Board Chairman Gayle Franzen to fill the vacancy resulting from the resignation of former board member Kenneth Moy (R-Hinsdale). Moy stepped down this month to accept an appointment as a DuPage County Circuit Court judge.

Day will fill the two years remaining on Moy's term.

District 3 includes Hinsdale, Downers Grove, Darien and most of the rest of Downers Grove Township.

Afterward, Franzen said he was unaware that Nied had signed up to speak against the appointment.

"Had I known, I would have been happy to allow her to go first," he said.

Nied said that Day has had little involvement in community issues and that none of the District 3 board members will live in unincorporated areas of the township after incumbent Barbara Purcell (R-Downers Grove) retires in December. Others have raised concerns about Day's lack of involvement recently in the township's Republican organization.

There also appears to be unhappiness, especially in the party organization, that the appointment did not go to community activist Angelique Maalem. Maalem has twice now sought appointment to the board.